I was at the mann chinese theater a couple of nights ago waiting in line for the 1:30 am matrix reloaded show. And who comes walking by? You guessed it, quentin tarantino. he had this blonde girl around his arm and you really couldn't miss him. the funny thing is he was getting in line and we were already near the back of the line.

the motherfucker has so much time on his hands he didn't even bother getting in line early for the matrix reloaded.

anyway, as we were looking for the people who saved our seats, we saw good ol' quentin sitting in the third row from the front. i don't know if any of you have been to the chinese theater before but anything within the fifth row, you are pretty much looking straight up at the ceiling, and you have to repeatedly turn your head at a 180 degree angle during the movie to see what's happening on the right and left sides of the screen.

you heard it here folks, quentin tarantino had a bad seat.

the really funny part? during the whole movie he kept saying "royale with cheese, royale with cheese". at first the audience was thrilled to have quentin tarantino sitting among them but after a while it really got annoying. though he stopped at about the one hour mark. but then he started taking out little dayquill tablets and throwing them at the audience, yelling "take the red pill, take the red pill" and laughing.

That's nothing. The other day I went to the dollar theatre to see The Hours and who was there ? Quentin Tarantino. He shoved me out of the way and told them he better not have to pay. Then he bit one of the ushers. Nobody would do anything since it was Tarantino. Then in the movie, everytime it showed two women kiss he would say "I'm horny as a rhino ! Whop whop whop whop !!!" and he'd start singing old Beach Boys songs. Then he kicked a pregnant mother right in the stomach.

Q.T. walked by while wearing an authentic Elvis costume. It was periwinkle blue. He went bee line to the Starbuck's counter and ordered an Orange Mocha Frappachino. Upon procurring the orange mocha frappachino, he went out into the parking lot and kicked a few children away from his gigantic S.U.V. and sped off with R. Kelly. I still know what you did last.... time I got my laundry done.

I sing naked with enough Brandy, but not like "Girls Gone Wild" or anything. I mean, I really don't know how to sing, so other people have to drink a lot too if their around..... And then again, I don't have any bells.... And all along, Q.T. is telling me about the virtues of being able to groove with too much coffee in my blood. Then we eat lots and lots of hostess cakes and watch Cleaopatra Jones for the 5000 time. One time he convinced me to join the 700 club and that I was really a puppet monger.

After a year-and-a-half of negotiation, film director Quentin Tarantino is set to sign a lease agreement for the vacant King Hing theater at 649 N. Spring St. in Chinatown, a source familiar with the deal told Los Angeles Downtown News last week.

George Yu, executive director for the Chinatown Business Improvement District (BID), said the lease contract is in the hands of both Tarantino and the theater's property owner. Tarantino's publicist did not return calls and the director's business manager would not comment.

Tarantino, best known for the 1994 work Pulp Fiction, reportedly wants to create a specialized movie house for Chinese cinema. Yu said that Tarantino has told him stories about visiting the King Hing and Chinatown's other movie theaters as a young man. The director's fourth film, Kill Bill, scheduled to hit theaters this fall, is an homage to Chinese martial arts films of the '70s.

The 425-seat theater was built in the '60s and has been vacant since 1996. The BID arranged for visits from the Building and Safety and Fire departments. The owner will absorb the costs of bringing the structure up to code, and Tarantino will pay for refurbished sound and projection systems.

In addition to the theater, Tarantino will have access to hundreds of Chinese films, some little-seen classics, that are stored on the property and belong to the theater's owner. Tarantino has agreed to catalog them, and restore them if he chooses to screen them.

Yu said that representatives for the director approached him at the end of 2001, but negotiations languished for months, partially because the theater's owner, a woman who speaks limited English, didn't know who Tarantino was.

In March, Tarantino spoke at a Chinese martial arts film festival at UCLA, and stories about Kill Bill, much of which was filmed in China, began to appear in Chinese publications. Tarantino's management team put together a packet of clippings, which Yu showed to the theater's owner.

A lunch meeting was scheduled. The owner, the BID's executive committee and Tarantino's representatives were to attend. Yu's team was surprised when Tarantino himself walked in.

"We felt that he was a man that truly loved Asian cinema, and wanted to have a place to show these movies," Yu said.

The section of Spring Street just north of Cesar Chavez Avenue has undergone several phases of revitalization over the years. The area is part of what was once called China City, a development championed in the 1930s by Christine Sterling, the socialite who shaped Olvera Street. Fires ravaged the street in the '40s, and by that time, New Chinatown was taking shape further north, around Central Plaza.

The idea of a buzz-heavy director adding to the vitality of the area is exciting local business owners, many of whom located in Chinatown following the explosion of art galleries on and around Chung King Road. Recently a new restaurant, Asian Noodles, and fashion public relations firm APR Consulting, opened their doors. Hair stylist Jose Cantu plans to open a salon on Spring Street this summer.

Andrae Gonzalo, owner of another new Spring Street store, clothing boutique Forget It, Jake (a reference to the last line from the film Chinatown), says he remembers the day last year when "mysterious and chic Hollywood types" exited the theater holding film canisters.

"They were button-lipped about the whole thing, but later I heard they were Quentin Tarantino's people, and it's been like Waiting for Godot ever since," said Gonzalo. "That's what I call it, 'Waiting for Godot Tarantino.'"

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